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In the bodybuilding world there are often three critical elements to success. In no particular order we know those as...

Usually the argument is over which area is most important to a bodybuilders success. Still the one thing we can all agree on, is that all three are important. In the realm of blogs, fitness sites, and general bodybuilding advice outlets the least discussed is often sleep. Now we know that in general getting enough sleep is important to our goals. There is a lot of sleep research out there, and it all supports that more pillow time will improve your fat loss, muscle growth, and overall body composition goals. But what if you just don't have that option? Maybe you need to be up earlier one day for an important meeting, or your dog decides to tear up the house at 3a.m. Well a recent piece of research out of Lubeck, Germany answers this question for us.

The Study

The study conducted two experiments spaced 16 weeks apart in healthy men (average age of 27). The first experiment tested whether or not staying up later, and getting only 4 hours of sleep (vs. 8 hour group) effected serum markers of testosterone luteinizing hormone (LH), and prolactin. They measured these markers after two nights of staying up late, and sleeping only 4 hours. Both groups were awoke at the same time of day (7 a.m.). They also scored (subjectively) measures of mood for each group before and after the 2 days.

Surprisingly the found no major differences in testosterone, LH, or prolactin levels between the two groups. They did however find that mood scores were significantly lower in the group deprived of an extra 4 hours of sleep. Suggesting that although you may not see a drop in the backbone (testosterone) of bodybuilding success, but it may have a negative psychological impact (ex, motivation to hit the gym). This also suggests that staying up late to catch game 7 of the NBA finals, may in fact not be as harmful as we might think.

That brings us to the second experiment. This part of the experiment did things slightly different, but the primary difference was that in the restricted sleep group, they limited sleep to the early part of the night, and woke them up much earlier than they were used to. There was also a group completely restricted from sleep. They compared the three groups to determine the impact again on testosterone, LH, and prolactin. In this second experiment they found the answers to some of our earlier questions. In the morning they found that testosterone was decreased in both the sleep limited group (to early part of night), and to the group completely restricted from any sleep. They also found significant reductions in prolactin for both groups, but no changes of significance in LH. Results are summarized below, with the starting testosterone levels notated in the top bubble.

As you can see in the results, it appears that going to bed on time, but waking up earlier than normal can have a significant negative effect on total testosterone levels. Of special note, the group with only 4.5 hours of sleep had significantly less measured time in the important REM (14 minutes, vs 50) and Stage 2 sleep (125 minutes, vs 230). Even more importantly (although statistically not significant) Stage 3 and 4 sleep (or slow wave sleep) also increased (65 minutes, vs 77).

The Takeaway

Based on these results, it's quite apparent that if you are wanting to maintain and/or increase your natural testosterone levels, it's important to get some sleep. And if you are unable to get a full night of sleep, we suggests you stay up later, but still wake up at your normal time (or even sleep in late if you have that option). This also re-establishes the importance of taking your sleep seriously. This is another reason why Advanced Muscle Science offers an extremely good value sleep supplement called Nocturnabol. Nocturnabol is specifically designed to get you more pillow time, and more importantly quality pillow time. One ofthe biggest differences that Nocturnabol provides is quality of sleep. So whether you have limited sleep time or not, it's important to take a supplement like this that can help you rest, and recover.

Discount!

As a special offer, to honor Unofficial National Testosterone Month, you can use the following coupon code and get Nocturnabol (a 30 day supply) for only $9.99. Just visit the Advanced Muscle Science Store and place one box in your cart. Enter the following code in the redemption field: